Or I'm assuming it was her because she's the older one and she's being protective of it.

I don't know when for sure she laid it. I can only assume it was yesterday (the 15th), because I didn't let them out that day. Or maybe she laid it the night before, right after I put them to bed. Or maybe it was in there all day that day, and I somehow didn't notice.

She does sit on it, but doesn't seem too bent on keeping it warm really. I gave her the choice of coming out of the cage, and she took it. She was perfectly fine for quite a while, asking for scritches and being her usual busy-butt. She's getting much more jealous of Alex though. I can't touch him with her near. Usually it's the other way around. Though after a while, she started to act a little anxious. She kept looking towards the cage. She had been flying around a while lot though, so I decided to just carry her back so she could sit on her egg.

Alex seems completely clueless about what should be done with the egg. He sees Lucy rolling it around and begins to roll it around himself (herself?), but doesn't understand that he's supposed to sit on it. Closest thing they did to sitting on it was put their foot on top of it. Guess Alex sees it as a toy more than anything. Lucy of course, doesn't appreciate this, and gets rather defensive most of the time.

I'm trying my best to keep moving the egg minimal. I did have to move it in order to clean the cage though. I ended up temporarily putting it in the seed bowl while I took the tray out. She wasn't happy about that of course, but when she realized that the egg was safe, she didn't hold a grudge. The seed bowl is also on the bottom of the cage all the time, so it wasn't really that dramatic of a move, since I just put the seed bowl back after removing the tray. Then took it out after I got the tray back in, and she backed up into a corner with the egg to sit on it.

The egg is really light, and obviously not fertile (Alex is too young to know what sex is, and is possibly also female). My mom says to take it out because apparently they begin to smell bad after a while, though I know that will encourage her to lay even more, which would not be good.

Given that this is her first time laying eggs, how many do you think she will try to lay? Also, when should I begin to take them out? I'm thinking of possibly getting clay and making dummy eggs, since that will remove the problem of rotting eggs stinking up the place, or eggs breaking and making a mess (and with Alex's tendency to rough-house with everything, that would actually seem to be a risk if Lucy isn't paying enough attention to stop him).

I'll have to keep a close eye on her to watch her behavior towards the eggs now. Right now she seems to only be half-committed to taking care of it, so I'm wondering if there is a risk to removing it. I'm going to play it safe though.

Wow bust times ahead

It's probably Lucy's egg - she's a year old which is old enough for egg laying, but Alex is probably still too young (and possibly male as well). With cockatiels, both sexes help incubate the eggs so both males and females will roll an egg under them when they find one.

The egg won't start smelling bad unless it gets cracked, which lets bacteria in. Here in the desert, infertile eggs just slowly dry out. Since she's only semi-attentive to the egg, it's possible that a nice strong dose of hormone control techniques right now might stop her from laying more. But if you'd rather deal with it by letting her sit on the egg(s), you can help protect against breakage by providing a padded area to nest in. Nothing that's enclosed like a nestbox, since you don't want to make it too comfy and encouraging. But something that won't tip over like a heavy bowl or or open basket, with something soft inside like shredded newspaper or paper towels. Put it in the same area that she's sitting on the egg right now. Once a cockatiel lays an egg in a particular spot, they may be committed to that spot as their nest. If you move them somewhere else they may count it as the start of a different clutch, and lay more eggs accordingly.

If you let her sit on the eggs for this round, you'll need hormone control techniques in the fairly near future to stop her from starting a new clutch when this one fails to hatch on schedule.

The typical clutch size for cockatiels is 4 to 6 eggs, laid every other day, so that's what she's likely to do. Her mother usually lays 5 eggs per clutch.

My veins grew cold, and shriveled up when I read that.

I didn't mean that we ought to use it on YOU!!!

I know, but the words "strong" and "dose" when put together, makes me feel disgusted. I hate needles in general, when put with dose. Brrrrr.

I've never had a problem with needles.

yesterday I was trying to find something, and looked in the place where I keep the nestbox (it's a very secret place, usually I don't get in there at all). The box still had bedding in it and ..... one egg! I didn't know I put it away with an egg still in it.
I got nostalgic about times we were using it... anything related to babies is Cute! If I only knew what to do with the babies when they grow into adults...
Good luck Jessi

Alex had actually gone through their juvenile molt, and their pearls have not faded or changed in the slightest, so I'm thinking that chances are they're actually female.

So now there are 3 eggs. Lucy sits on them at night and she definitely doesn't like anyone near them. Oddly enough she seems rather trusting of me rolling them around ever so slightly, just as long as she can get to them.

if I were to use methods on controlling her hormones to keep her from laying anymore, could I take out the eggs once I know her horomones are under control? Or should I still let her sit on them a few more days?

I actually had a funny thought (and I was actually going to draw this during last month's art contest, but got too caught up with college and such) about replacing one of the I forte eggs with a fertile quail egg. chances are it would probably freak her out if the bird hatched with a different beak, more fluff than usual, and then open its eyes and walk around on the same day it hatched.

I've heard of a budgie taking care of a Japanese quail egg, which happens to be bigger than a cockatiel egg (as seen here: http://featherdragon3.tripod.com/id12.html). The egg also hatched.

But I already have six birds and planning on a 7th (Getting Joey a girlfriend), so I don't think a quail right now would be the best option Plus, scaring Lucy isn't worth it for another bird, I don't think.

If you can get her hormones down to non-breeding levels she'll abandon the eggs. You can take them away and she won't care.

Hatching out a quail chick would definitely freak her out! It could be pretty disastrous though if she tried to feed it.